


Jasper's Journey

by orphan_account



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-15 03:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7206044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of Super Watermelon Island, Jasper wakes up to the darkness of a deep ocean fissure. Knowing that she could never face Yellow Diamond after this second failure, Jasper tries to figure out what to do with herself, learning things about the earth and herself as a result.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Bent but not Broken

**Author's Note:**

> First Fanfiction I've ever written. Constructive critique is welcome! I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> I've decided to stop writing this because I have no motivation to continue it. Sorry.

Jasper knew she was out of her league.

She had been outnumbered and outmatched. The gems that formed the Alexandrite, even if half or more were defective, were working together. Jasper did not have that luxury. It was no wonder that Malachite, even if Jasper was in control, was defeated. She almost got lucky, if it weren’t for those small organic creatures which managed to subdue Malachite for just long enough.

What had she expected? Any gem would know that in that situation they would lose the battle and be poofed and worse yet, shattered. But Jasper knew the reason that she fought. 

She didn’t have anything to lose anymore.

And she was defeated. Poofed, likely. Shattered? Definitely. She had fought the Crystal Gems before, back in the first war. For all she had done, Jasper didn’t expect any mercy.

So why was she self aware and seeing nothing but blackness, instead of the familiarity of her gem’s interior? 

Why could she feel the same ocean that had trapped her for months around her? 

Why could she hear movement in the water of small, harmless organic creatures around her?

Why was she alive?

Jasper didn’t know what to expect anymore. She wasn’t poofed. She hadn’t even been captured. She knew she was underwater and in physical, solid existence. Had the Crystal Gems brought her to this place?

There wasn’t an explanation, and Jasper needed one, so she tried to move.

And she did. She felt tired, which to her was the one thing she could reliably expect at this point. She found she could stand, or at least crouch. Using her gem, she manage to light up the area to at least see where she was going. Her movements were slower due to the water, but it was something she could endure.

Jasper found that she was in a huge fissure in the crust of the planet, filled with seawater. She couldn’t see the surface from the bottom of the fissure, but one end of it was nearby. She chose to go in that direction.

Other than as Malachite, Jasper hadn’t seen much of the sea of the earth that she could remember. All of the battles she fought were on land, where she had an advantage. That was a cruel reminder of when she did not, of when a Lapis Lazuli decieved her. If the ocean hadn’t provided enough of a bitter reminder, that thought did the trick. Jasper wanted to get out of her former prison, and thankfully was no longer restrained by any chains. She quickened her pace and began to swim upwards. She could see the small planetoid humans called the moon, the only light in the sky when she surfaced. It was night time.

Treading water, Jasper looked around for land. The only land nearby was the same island she was defeated at. She didn’t want to return there, but figured she did not have much of a choice. She could tell there was another land mass, some distance west, but it was too far to reach at that point. Jasper knew she needed to rest. She’d figure out what to do next after that.


	2. A Good Reason to Wonder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot is nervous about the possible return of the Rubies.

Steven was exhausted once he had returned from the Big Donut. He had spent the entire night floating and falling, and hadn’t had any sleep since he had returned home. He almost fell asleep giving Pearl a hug. Amethyst had told him that Pearl would have liked a hug once he had returned from the Big Donut. He didn’t know why specifically, but he didn’t care either. Hugs were always a great thing to give.

The Gems understood Steven’s exhaustion. Even Gems could get tired, so Garnet had told him to get some rest and that he would need it.

He never quite caught on to what Garnet had actually meant by him needing rest. Only three hours of rest later, however, he was loudly awakened by the frantic yellings of a certain small and green gem.

“STEVEN! AMETHYST! GARNET! PEARL! ANYONE!”

“STEVEN!” 

Peridot had apparently been trying to wake him up for a few minutes once she finally had succeeded. Steven didn’t appreciate it, but knew Peridot had no idea that he hadn’t gotten much rest.

“Peridot… I’m trying to sleep…” Steven said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

“Okay but this is really important and I need to know if-”

“Peridot! Let Steven rest!”

_Thank you, Garnet!_ Steven thought, lying back down and closing his eyes. He hadn’t wanted to not help Peridot, but at the same time he did really need to sleep.

“But it’s really important!” Steven could easily hear Peridot protesting, so he covered his ears with the pillow. “Do we have a backup plan in case those Rubies come back? If they figure out we lied to them, then-”

“They won’t come back,” Garnet said. “If they do, we can say that she probably went somewhere else. There is no way for us to know her location given we aren’t tracking her, so the Rubies will leave us alone.”

“Oh.” Peridot replied, “That’s actually very logical… um, sorry for the intrusion…”

Steven knew Peridot had a tendency to freak out when she discovered a potential flaw in something. She would usually jump to the worst case scenario and freak out about it. Unfortunately, her logic based process of thinking failed to prevent that. Though, she had a valid question, and it made Steven realize that Jasper might still be out there.

He figured he shouldn’t worry about it, and went back to sleep.


	3. Blind and Weak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jasper finds a way off of Mask Island.

Jasper had figured the organic striped creatures did not view her favorably, and did her best to stay out of their sight. It wasn’t easy. The island was not big, and it was almost completely inhabited by them. It was hard for Jasper to find a place to hide and rest.

Originally, she had simply collapsed on the beach until morning came. She woke up and saw that she was surrounded by the same creatures that had ruined her only chance of defeating the Crystal Gems. It wasn’t hard to get away from them, though Jasper hated running from a fight. In any other situation she would have beat those pesky creatures into the ground, but that would be too reckless even for her in the current situation. As of now, she was hiding in a cave, trying to figure out what to do next.

Jasper figured she would have to try to get back to homeworld first, but realized that by now Yellow Diamond would have declared her mission a failure. Yellow Diamond was the least lenient of the Diamonds, especially towards failure. If Yellow Diamond saw Jasper’s mission as a failure, then it was Jasper’s responsibility and she would face all consequences. Even past that, Jasper did not want to face her superior with now two failures on her back and an unauthorized change of the mission, so Homeworld was no longer a safe option.

Jasper knew her options were limited, and the organic creatures were on alert and hunting her down. However, no matter what decision she made, Jasper knew she had to get off the island.

Lurking as best she could as a Quartz, Jasper looked around for a warp pad. She knew there had to be one around, and eventually, she found it. At least, what was left of it. The warp pad was completely destroyed.

_Fantastic._ Jasper thought sarcastically, but then became more speculative. _Was there an earthquake? It doesn’t look like it was destroyed deliberately… Back before I got defeated there were a bunch of earthquakes happening, anyways. What a pain._

The warp pad was out. Jasper would have to figure something else out, and fast. She was getting impatient with herself and her horrible luck. She liked to have control of her situation, but that control kept being stripped away from her.

Jasper lurked around the island again, and could find no other means of getting off the island. She figured there was only one place and one way to go. She would have to go across the water to the landmass she could now notice better since it was daytime. Swimming that distance, while possible, would take too long and wear her out easily.

Jasper decided to rest near a small pool of water, well hidden from the outside. It would buy her enough time to rest and figure out an alternative to swimming, but this planning bored her when she couldn’t come up with any viable solutions. Trying to find anything that was more interesting around her, her attention was caught on the pool of water. A large twig from one of the trees had fallen into the pool, but was floating on top of the water.

That was it. She could build a vessel that would be able to carry her across the water. She figured it wouldn’t be hard so long as she could get something that could cut limbs off of trees. Using vines to tie the limbs into a rectangle, she could easily build the base of a raft. She just had to find something to cut the limbs and vines with.

It took a few seconds before Jasper located part of a large geode outside of her hiding place. If she could break off a crystal and sharpen it, she could use it to cut things with. Lucky for her, the crystals in the geode were made of the same stuff that Quartz Gems like herself were made of.

So she got to work, cutting and retrieving tree limbs and vines and gathering them all on the beach, all while avoiding the strange organic creatures. It was getting dark, so it was easier to avoid them. Eventually they all would be sleeping and not concerned with Jasper.

Only after Jasper had tied together the full base of the raft did she realize she needed something to steer it with. She needed a sail. That didn’t take much thinking, either. Some of the trees had massive leaves, some almost as big as she was. That would work as a sail, so long as Jasper could make sure it wasn’t flimsy.

It was a few hours past sunset when Jasper decided she had finished the raft. Stabilizing the sail with half of one of the round organic objects that came from the same trees as the huge leaves, she could now turn the sail and thus steer the raft. She started to push the raft into the water, and got on once it was floating. The wind was light but just enough to start sailing towards the landmass to the west. Jasper figured this was going to be faster than swiming at the least.

“Finally.” Jasper thought aloud. Now that she was alone on the open sea, she could speak as much as she wanted. She didn’t need to say much, but had a need to express the relief to her impatience and frustration slipping away.

Just because it was faster than swimming, however, did not mean it wouldn’t take a while. Well over half the day had passed, and the days were getting short in this location, and Jasper was still sailing. She could better see the land mass, and almost see constructs that looked to be built by humans.

Suddenly, the wind picked up, and Jasper had to shift the sail in order to maintain direction. Something was wrong.

_FLASH!_

_BOOM!_

The light almost blinded her, and the loud noise almost made her deaf. Water was falling from the sky. Jasper had experienced this precipitation before, but the sounds only told her one thing.

A battle was being fought, and she wasn’t safe.

The sounds came more and more often, as did the flashes of what Jasper knew was gem weaponry. But she couldn’t see anyone else. She couldn’t see who or what was attacking, and that was a grave disadvantage. The sounds were getting louder and closer, so Jasper knew that whoever was fighting was close. Even then, she couldn’t see anyone, or anything. The wind was going wild and she had forgotten completely about the sail. She saw a battle being fought by an enemy she couldn’t see.

Jasper summoned her helmet from pure adrenaline. It wasn’t the same. She wasn’t set on an action. She wasn’t ready for this type of battle. This rush that she needed to summon her weapon in the first place wasn’t out of the thirst for battle. It was out of fear. 

A huge flash of light returned and hit Jasper’s raft. Jasper could feel the impact of some type of electric beam weapon, and her raft was shattered, throwing her from whatever remained. She fell into the water and under, but resurfaced and looked around for something to hold on to. Jasper wasn’t interested in a battle. At this point, she just wanted to survive.

_This isn’t right…_ Jasper thought, _This can’t be happening… who would be fighting?!_

Jasper shut her eyes. This was it. The last time her luck would run out. The last time her luck had the chance.


	4. Stormy Weather

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis asks Peridot what the obnoxious sound of thunder is, then goes back to a sleep that was supposed to be peaceful.

“What is that obnoxious sound…”

Peridot, even after Steven had taught her that rain and thunderstorms were not going to hurt her or destroy the earth, still didn’t like them. Thunder and lightning scared her just out of sheer surprise. This storm was loud enough to wake Lapis Lazuli up from her side of the barn. Peridot didn’t know if Lapis knew what a thunderstorm was.

“Um, it’s thunder.” Peridot answered from the box she was hiding in. She really still didn’t like thunderstorms. “The result of lightning being created from the high amount of opposing charge in the clouds that consist of the s-s-storm and the atmosphere below the c-cl-clouds…”

“Oh, okay.” Lapis replied in a monotone that had become her permanent voice. “I’m going back to sleep.”

“You’ve been sleeping all day!” Peridot replied. In truth, she didn’t want to be alone in dealing with the thunderstorm, but she would never admit that, especially to Lazuli. Their relationship, while improving, was still strained by the past.

“Yup,” Lapis replied, “G’night.”

And with that, Lapis went back to sleep. Peridot would never understand how Lapis could sleep through literally everything, nevermind how she could sleep so much. It was almost like it was a hobby to her.

_BOOM!_

“Gu-AH!!” Peridot jumped from her position, knocking the box off her in fear. She scampered to another hiding place, terrified. “Are you s-s-s-seriously going to just leave me to be terrified until this ends?”

No answer. Lapis was already asleep.

Peridot sighed, on high alert due to the thunderstorm. She needed to find something to calm her down, so she ran up to the attic to binge watch Camp Pining Hearts for the fifty-fourth time. She would never disclose that fact to anyone, except maybe Steven if he asked. He already knew she was CPH trash so there wasn’t anything to hide about the show from him.

Settling down, Peridot focused on the show and somehow forgot about the thunderstorm.

Back downstairs, Lapis was asleep, as usual. She liked sleep because it was peaceful. It was something she could choose to do, and making her own choices herself was very important to her.

This sleep was not peaceful.

Lapis didn’t have a ton of experience with dreams, though the ones she had so far were decent. She had never had a nightmare before. At least, not until now.


	5. Dangerous Waters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven has a dream and finds someone he hadn't expected to see so soon.

Steven shivered. He had originally been having a dream typical of his dreaming scheme. Random, not making too much sense, and including Dogcopter. And then, it had changed to something different. A thunderstorm was occuring and he was out in the middle of what looked like the Delmarva Bay. He was swimming in the water, but it was difficult to fight against the harsh currents caused by the storm. He felt like he was going to drown.

“Steven!” 

Steven saw something flying towards him. It was- no, she was blue, and he realized it was Lapis. He raised his arms and she grabbed him, lifting him out of the water and looking for the nearest landmass or rock to stay on.

“Lapis, what’s going on?” Steven asked, “At first everything was a normal dream and now everything is so real and-”

“This is a dream,” Lapis said. “I was asleep, too.”

“This is… just like the time when I talked to you while you were in Malachite!” Steven realized, “But… why…”

Lapis managed to find a few rocks jutting out of the water that were large and flat enough to rest on. She landed and her and Steven both almost collapsed.

“Hehe… It’s weird… to be tired… in a dream…” Steven said, trying to add some humor to this not so light situation.

_FLASH!_

_BOOM!_

A huge bolt of lightning hit the surface of the sea in the distance. It surprised both Steven and Lapis, who hadn’t expected that. Steven knew that lightning almost never struck the sea, especially the open sea, so it was strange.

Lapis and Steven stayed on the rock until the storm seemed to pass. Neither of them knew why they were still stuck inside the dream. Suddenly, they saw what looked to be driftwood wash up towards them. It was easy to see that this was part of some type of vessel. That wasn’t what mattered. Holding onto one of the larger fragments of what used to be a raft was someone Steven hadn’t expected to see and Lapis hadn’t wanted to see ever again.


End file.
